Tennessee citizens must not take their voting rights for granted again | Opinion

Rising rents, inflation, COVID-related job losses and evictions have contributed to changes of residence and increased homelessness for many Tennesseans.

If you are among them you will need to report your change of address to your local county election commission and verify your voter status. 

After redistricting was completed earlier this year, voter registration cards designating each voter’s newly configured voting precincts were mailed out to all registered voters across the state.

If at that time you were no longer at the street address of record and your new voter registration card or any subsequent communications from the election commission was returned as undeliverable, you may be at risk of being purged from the voter rolls.

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Here's what you need to register to vote

The Aug. 4 election is extremely important since it allows voters to select and elect candidates for governor, mayor, state and U.S. congressional representatives, as well as judges, county clerks, commissioners, city council and school board members.

Early voting runs from July 15 through July 30.  However, since the last date to register to vote is July 5 time is of the essence to register or re-register.

With a Tennessee Driver License, both can be easily accomplished online at GoVoteTn.com, the Secretary of State’s official election information site. Specific questions can be answered by calling 877-850-4959.

Voting in Tennessee requires that one must be able to receive mail at a physical street address, not a Post Office box, and voters must present specific forms of picture ID at the time of voting.

That includes a Tennessee driver license with photo (current or expired), U.S. Passport, U.S. Military ID with photo, or Tennessee handgun carry permit with photo. Student identification is not accepted. For those without a permanent residence, a public shelter address is acceptable. 

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Voter turnout is low and some citizens are disenfranchised

Tennessee continues to rank poorly among other states for its lack of voter participation — 48th in 2020 — largely due to our increasingly restrictive voter registration and election laws.

Although mail-in-balloting remains the favored voting method for many would-be voters; complicated and confusing requirements make absentee voting difficult and cumbersome.

Then, there are the hurdles which former convicted felons in Tennessee must overcome to regain their voting rights after having paid their debt to society. That has resulted in more than 1 in 5 black adults with a previous felony conviction (most often drug-related) becoming permanently disenfranchised.

And now that homelessness is a felonious offense for those unfortunates caught camping or sleeping on public property, there will undoubtedly be many more joining the ranks of the disenfranchised. 

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Voters can initiate positive change at the ballot box

In 2022 there are numerous local and national quality-of-life issues at stake, most particularly those related to gun control, wanton violence, and racist-based extremism.  Also at risk are fundamental constitutional rights affecting the lives of voters, workers, and most particularly women.

For Tennesseans, it’s impossible to ignore our excessively high rates of gun-related crime, violence, homicides, road-rage incidents, and suicides.

Additional serious problems include the lack of affordable housing, availability and access to health care, and the threat which charter schools pose to our public educational system.

Tennesseans deserve better. Indeed there are many reasons to hold accountable those elected officials who have allowed their personal, financial, and political agendas to supersede the best interests and well-being of those for whom they were pledged to serve.

We, the People can initiate positive change at the ballot box.

Support democracy by exercising your right to vote. 

Chloe Cerutti is a retired escrow officer from Seattle, Washington, a 15-year Murfreesboro resident and a long-time civic activist.   

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee citizens must not take their voting rights for granted again